USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Picturesque Hampden : 1500 illustrations > Part 19
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After the tubes are set and the boiler joints calked, an inspector of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company is called in, and in his presence the boiler is filled with cold water and submitted to a hydrostatic pressure of two hundred and twenty-five pounds. If by this severe test no weakness is discovered, the boiler is certainly safe, and it is a fact that no explosion, rupture or strain, which sometimes result from poor construction and bad material, has ever occurred in the Coghlan boilers. Among paper makers throughout the country the rotary bleacher manufactured at Coghlan's has found especial favor, and while it is so nearly perfect to-day that it seems as if the limit has been nearly reached, yet it is continually being subjected to improvements, so that while the rotary of five years ago was the best of its kind then on the market, the rotary of to-day is far better than that, and the rotary of five years hence will be in advance of this. The important particulars in which the
THE LATE DAVID F. COGHLAN.
without equivocation: He is a practical boiler-maker, who knows his business "from A to Z,"-from rivets to combustion chamber. Beginning in 1870, he has worked twenty-two years at boiler-making, and with more than ordinary practical results, as his own well-known patents, illustrated in these pages, will show. In 1876, he assumed the position of foreman for Mr. Coghlan, who reposed implicit confidence in his integrity as a man of business. That his confidence was wisely placed has been proven by the success achieved under Mr. Sears' management the past five years.
The Holyoke steam boiler works are situated in conven- ient proximity to the railroads running through Holyoke and cover an area of nearly 30,000 square feet in a triangle formed by the conjunction of Park and Crescent streets.
We read that Jubal Cain was "a man of might," and his prototypes of the present age at these works are mostly after his pattern, though they have
END VIEW OF THE SEABS DOUBLE-DECK TUBULAB BOILER.
the aid of modern appli- ances to swing the heavy plates of iron about with ease. When a car with a load of plate-iron runs up alongside the shop, a huge crane seizes the metal and swings it around to the bench where the pre- liminary marking is done before it goes to the punch.
SIDE ELEVATION OF THE SEARS DOUBLE DECK TUBULAR BOILER.
COMPOUND TUBULAR STRAM BOILER.
IMPROVED TRIPLE DRAUOHT TUBULAR BOILER.
HIGH-PRESSURE MANNING BOILER.
present differs from the old style of rotary bleachers are the substitution of the full plate for the sectional head and the applica- tion of a patent blow-off and strainer, together with the method of connecting the rag-pins, which is covered by letters patent. The spur-gear system or driving apparatus of this machine makes it the easiest running rotary extant.
This establishment also builds a compound tubular steam boiler, a horizontal tubular boiler, the Manning vertical boiler, a triple draught boiler and Sears' Water-Tube Boiler. The latter is the invention of Mr. T. H. Sears, who obtained a patent for it in 1886 on the points of heat conservation and the means of preventing the collection of sediment in the PLAIN HORIZONTAL TUBULAB BOILER. tubes. These ends are accomplished by a peculiar and ingenious alternation of water and fire tubes by which the water in the former incloses the fire space in the latter, constituting a " central-fire tube water-tube boiler."
The triple draught boiler offers easy ac- cessibility for cleaning and repairing, and as its name indicates, the heat from combustion is so utilized that the gases make three turns from the fire-bed to the flue, thus bringing the greatest possible extent of tubing surface in direct contact with the heat.
Repair and inspection work anywhere, but especially in New England and eastern New York, form no small part of the busi- ness at Coghlan's. The former is intrusted only to skilled mechanics, while to the latter Mr. Sears gives his own personal supervision, and in both cases the demands of the highest standard are exempli- fied in the results attained.
The facilities of the concern for doing everything in first- class plate iron work are so well known that it has been crowded to overflowing, through the past season, with the accumulation of orders, and the concern now has more workmen employed than at any time in its history, proba- bilities being that its number will be still further increased.
About 65 men are employed in the Coghlan boiler works, and the pay roll amounts to about $3,600 a month.
T. H. SEARS, MANAGER OF THE COGHLAN BOILER WORKS.
142
PICTURESQUE HAMPDEN.
HOLYOKE MACHINE COMPANY, HOLYOKE, MASS.
Turbines. Gearing, Improved Paper Machinery, Pumps, Hydraulic Presses, Elevators, Etc.
N. H. WHITTEN, PRESIDENT.
S. HOLMAN, TREASURER.
C. H. HEYWOOD, ASSISTANT TREASURER. H. J. FRINK, AGENT.
HOLYOKESTEAM BOILER WORKS
3 48
HOOSAC TUNNEL 9322 ROUTE
FITCHBURG 9322
THOMAS J. LONG.
THOMAS S. WALSH.
WORKS OF LONG & WALSH.
LONG & WALSH STEAM BOILER WORKS.
The growth of the city of Holyoke brought forth the new firm of Long & Walsh not quite two years ago, and there has proved to be room, enough for them as well as others, in the manufacture of rotary and steam boilers, penstocks, etc.
Mr. Long is a native of Holyoke, is about thirty- two years of age, was educated in the "Paper City," and worked in the Coghlan shops for fifteen years, also with R. F. Hawkins of Springfield. Mr. Walsh, his partner, is thirty-five years of age, a native of Hartford, Conn., and received a large part of his education in the evening schools of Springfield. In 1875 he began to learn boiler-making in the Boston & Albany Railroad shops, working there five years. He then went into the shop of the New York Central
Railroad Company, and finally closed his trade edu- cation as a journeyman in the shops of R. F. Hawkins of Springfield.
Now, as master workmen, Messrs. Long & Walsh have achieved signal success, for several good reasons. Both are young men who understand their business, of excellent reputation, which they are anxious to even im- prove. So satisfactorily has all their work been done that its fruits are seen to-day in a rush of orders that has kept them running day and night. Some of their more recent contracts may be summed up as follows : Flume, T-center and draft tube for the Farmington River Paper Company, Hartford, Conn., penstock for the Chase Turbine Company of Orange, Mass .; flume and draft tube for the Glasgow Manufacturing Com- pany, South Hadley Falls; 150 feet of penstock, seven feet in diameter, for the Carew Paper Company, South
Hadley Falls; 1,050 feet of penstock, equally divided into diameters of seven, nine and ten feet for River- side Mill No. 2, Holyoke; one boiler for the Appleton street school, Holyoke, and two boilers for the new Young Men's Christian Association building in the same city.
One of the boilers recently made for the Merrick Lumber Company, is a fine specimen of Messrs. Long & Walsh's work. It is of the triple butt joint type, the joint being sextuple riveted, the rivets passing through a double strap and giving the joint a resisting strength equal to ninety-five per cent. of that of a whole plate. When it is considered that in all boilers the joint is the weakest spot, and as ordinarily riveted is capable of withstanding only about sixty per cent. as much as the plate, the utility of these six rows of rivets will at once be apparent.
-
FITCHBUI
143
PICTURESQUE
WORKING ON KEY-SLOTTING MACHINE AND TURNING LATHE.
J. & W. JOLLY, MACHINISTS.
It is a more than ordinarily interesting series of illustrations that are shown on this page. The public never tire of watching mechanics at their work-like to "boss" them, as it were- and pictures of the more intelligent sons of toil at their tasks have more or less of the same charm to the un- initiated.
The Messrs. Jolly, whose main works show on this page, are expert jobbers, ma- chinists and manufacturers of paper-making and other machinery at Holyoke. They established this business in 1881, and have brought it to great proportions, employing at times nearly 200 workmen. Being experi- enced and practical mechanics themselves, everything goes through their works under their own personal supervision, and they thus insure the setting up only of such machines as will stand the most critical tests.
The premises occupied include not only the building shown in the center of this page, but a foundry in the eastern part of the city, which the brothers purchased a few years since of the late firm of Munn & Baush. This step has proved of great advantage to the brothers, as they are now enabled to make
HAMPDEN.
not only all their own castings, but to do also a vast amount of business in this line for others. The making of heavy castings for store fronts is a large part of the work and the foundry turns out about seven tons of cast iron a day.
The building, pictured on this page, is on the first level canal, between Appleton and Cabot streets, and is a two-story brick building 25 x 120 feet in dimensions, fully supplied with all the modern tools and machinery known to the trade. This is in decided contrast to the small one-story wooden affair in
A GLIMPSE THROUGH THE SMOKE OF THE BLACKSMITH SHOP.
J. & W. JOLLY'S SHOPS ON FIRST LEVEL; CANAL.
TURNING AND BORING A LARGE PULLEY.
which they began business, considerably smaller than their present blacksmith shop. In January, 1881, the Messrs. Jolly bought out the firm of Roby & Saunders, who were run- ning a small repair shop employing five men.
From the earliest commencement of their enterprise, the growth of its various depart- ments has been constant and healthy, and yet it is crowded to such an extent to-day that for two-thirds of the time the foundry and machine shop have been obliged to run sixteen hours a day.
The machinery is operated by water power, and among the specialties manufac- tured are Manning's patent combination winder, screens and vats for paper machines, Ferry's patent star duster, etc. The firm also promptly refill Jordan engines and en- gine rolls and make elevators, power boiler pumps, paper calender rolls, stuff pumps, pulleys, shafting, hangers and gearing. Iron and steel forging, model and pattern making are also attended to promptly.
But the most important of the specialties manufactured by the Messrs. Jolly is the McCormick Holyoke Turbine Wheel, a machine which has revolutionized the use of water power, and to which the city of Holyoke is indebted for no small share of its prosperity. This wheel is manu- factured by the Messrs. Jolly under a limited right, and Mr. McCormick, the inventor, has quarters on their premises. When it is considered that 17,000 horse power in the mills of Holyoke are depend- ent upon this turbine wheel, the value of Mr. McCormick's invention may be partly estimated. From all the publishers of this work can learn, the productions of the Jolly Brothers are unsur- passed for quality of materials and workman- ship, and for durability and excellence they seem to be undisputedly in- ferior to none.
FINISHING A TURBINE WHEEL.
144
PICTURESQUE HAMPDEN.
JOHN B. McCORMICK IN HIS WORKSHOP.
THE MAN WHO REVOLUTIONIZED THE TURBINE WHEEL BUSINESS OF THE WORLD.
145
THE PERFECT TURBINE WHEEL.
SOMETHING ABOUT " MC CORMICK'S HOLYOKE TUR- BINE WHEEL," AND THE MAN WHO DESIGNED IT AND MADE IT WHAT IT IS TO-DAY .- MAKING THE MONEY WHICH PRODUCED THE WHEEL BY TEACH- ING MUSIC .- THE INVENTOR DAILY WITNESSING THE TRIUMPHS OF HIS OWN INVENTION.
Just before closing the last few pages of this work, the editor happened to discover, in a purely incidental way, one of the mainsprings of the remarkable success which has attended the industrial life of Holyoke.
Entirely without premeditation on the part of either, the writer was introduced to a gray and grizzled me- chanic, to whom, there is no reason to doubt, the in- dustrial world is greatly in debt, for the saving of power he has given it. This man is John B. McCor- mick of Holyoke, a relative of the McCormicks of reaper fame, and that the Holyoke man has attained as much excellence in the line of hydraulic motors as his relatives have in reapers, it is believed the public will grant when the story is told ; although limited space must be an apology for greatly abbreviating the description of a remarkable invention and its inventor.
Away back, in a little corner room of the Messrs. Jolly's machine shop in Holyoke, the persevering in- ventor of " McCormick's Holyoke Turbine Wheel" chips away and carves upon his patterns. The man is a study ; he talks as he works, and no matter how inter- ested he is in what you have to say, he cuts and sand- papers the patterns of his turbine buckets as carefully and lovingly as if he were handling things of life -and things of life, or those which sustain life, the steel, brass and iron prototypes of the patterns will surely be when they are completed ; for the blades, or buckets, which he fashions, will indirectly furnish bread for thousands of families. Therefore, the more graceful the curves, according to underlying mechanical truths, the higher the efficiency produced-the faster the wheel will revolve, owing to the continual impinge from the power of the on-rushing water.
The more correct those lines of beauty, the better you say? Ah! there's the rub. Mechanics have ex- perimented for years, and for aught we know, in cen- turies long gone, the secret of the best wheel power was barely missed; that it was ever found, before the present century, we certainly have no evidence. But in the present age, the strife to build a racing boat on such lines that she will easiest glide through the water, has not been more spirited or determined than the con- test of American mechanics, in their endeavor to make iron and steel bands hold and embrace best, for the brief necessary instant, the flood of waters purposely directed against them.
Has the best American turbine wheel been found ? James Emerson, the hydraulic engineer and mechanical expert, of Willimansett, the inventor of that sailors' godsend, the ship's windlass and the Emerson car heater, says yes. The late General Ellis of Hartford, Conn., and Samuel Webber of Manchester, N. H., both hydraulic engineers of reputation, who acted as a committee in testing many turbine wheels with Mr. Emerson, also said yes, and decided with him in favor of Mr. McCormick's " Hercules" turbine wheels. Mr. Emerson says, in his interesting work on hydrody- namics (and a good many other things !) that -
" In 1876 several wheels were brought to the Holyoke testing flume, to be tested by me. The builders, Messrs. McCormick and Brown, made such extravagant claims that they were laughed at as visionary cranks of the then usual hydrodynamic species. A week spent in testing, re-testing, changing wheels and again testing, proved the claims of the builders to be well founded. Leading turbine builders were called in to assist in making the tests, for it was evident the wheel marked a new era in hydrodynamics."
Like other inventors, however, Mr. McCormick has had to take his share of ridicule and derision, and he has been jumped upon and his wheel has been called all sorts of hard names by slack-baked engineers. Such pet names as the following have been freely used : "The great monstrosity," "The Herculean water- eater," "The lake-devourer, or dryer-up of the nine-
PICTURESQUE HAMPDEN.
teenth century." Mr. McCormick has been many times twitted regarding his knowledge of hydraulics and matters pertaining thereto, but in the writer's opinion, most of the inventor's opponents would be worsted if engaged with him either in the discussion of hydraulics or leading questions of the day; for Mr. McCormick, though of American birth, has the hard head of his Scotch-Irish ancestors, and is some- what of a student of political economics as well as his special line of mechanic art. And after all has been said, it was the introduction of Mr. McCormick's wheels which made it possible for Holyoke paper mills to double and almost treble their output without ma- terially increasing their flume area. Mr. McCormick can well afford to bear patiently the sneers and ridi- cule of the mechanical ignoramuses, for his wheels at one leap produced three times the power of former makes as to diameter, and the best partgate results ever attained, and changed the entire aspect, as far as water powers are concerned. He has lived to see the manufacturers of wheels change their power tables from time to time to correspond as nearly as possible to what he established.
He has lived to see the principal manufacturers of turbines in the United States (except three) ask for the privilege of manufacturing "McCormick's Holyoke Turbine," and no doubt they would but fear the effect
MCCORMICK'S HOLYOKE TURBINE.
produced thereby, providing they should not succeed in obtaining the privilege.
He has lived to see manufacturers throw aside their double wheels, register gates and swing gates, and pur- loin and adopt his ideas and plans almost in toto, or as near as they dare go without infringing patents, and at this time there are some who are very near the danger line, if not there altogether, while others have undoubt- edly crossed over.
As showing how widely the merits of " McCormick's Holyoke Turbine Wheels" are recognized, the history of the day on which this subject was discussed by Mr. McCormick and the writer may prove interesting. It was the day on which the Parsons Paper Company started up with a wheel having a capacity of four hundred horse power. Three men left for Dalton, Mass., the same day, to put in two of these wheels at Crane's government mill. The same day, also, a con- tract was closed with the town of Easthampton, for a wheel to be placed in the pumping station of the water works, and an order was received the same morning from Glasgow, Scotland, for a thirty-inch wheel. The same week a wheel was shipped to the European agents of J. & W. Jolly, and the new Linden paper company made a contract with them for a pair of horizontal wheels and one vertical, having a total capacity of nearly one thousand horse power.
A few words about the inventor of the Holyoke Turbine Wheel seem called for in this connection, although anything like a comprehensive sketch of the man's life, it is simply impossible to produce here. John B. McCormick was born November 4, 1834, in the little town of Sinking Valley, near what is now known as the city of Altoona, in Huntingdon, now Blair county, Pa. The advantages afforded for edu- cation in the retired little community where Mr. McCormick lived, were meagre enough, and he picked up most of his knowledge piecemeal, while all his life long experience has been his best teacher. When he became old enough he worked at cabinet and chair making, in an old-fashioned hand shop, thoroughly mastering the trade. At the same time he cultivated a taste for music, which he afterward turned to ad- vantage. In later years some of the best old church tunes were the result of his inspiration, and his music books are now published by Bigelow & Main of New York.
For five months in the year, for twenty-two years, Mr. McCormick taught music in the country school houses and churches, and thus it was that in Indiana county and adjoining counties, the name of McCor- mick became as familiar as a household word. Trudg- ing from place to place, the inventor estimates that he actually traveled in this way, in the twenty-two years he taught music, 42,000 miles. It was in this manner he saved the money which afterward enabled him to de. velop and bring forth his turbine wheels.
Mr. McCormick came to Holyoke in 1877 and en- tered the shops of the Holyoke Machine Company, to perfect his turbine wheel, remaining there about eleven years. While here he brought out the "Hercules" wheel which Mr. Emerson so highly commended, but which is now superseded by "McCormick's Holyoke Turbine," which is from ten to twenty-eight per cent. greater in power as to diameter. Here again it should be said that anything like a detailed history of this remarkable invention it is impossible to give. This must be reserved for some future mechanical history. Suffice it now to say, that the inventor's final triumph was made in the Messrs. Jolly's shops, and he has now lived to see many of the wheels that gave from thirty to sixty per cent. useful effect, displaced by his, which give over eighty per cent.
The engraving upon the opposite page represents "the little corner room" where John B. McCormick designs and perfects the Turbine which, with the cul- mination of his ripe experience, is now being com- pleted in its various sizes.
Mr. McCormick has lived in Holyoke compara- tively unnoticed, yet he is a saviour to the manu- facturing interests of this country, of a mass of power and energy which, if exerted as it had to be exerted with the old-fashioned wheels, the cellars of the mills in Holyoke would not be large enough to contain such wheels. All the improved wheels of to-day are the offshoots of Mr. McCormick's invention, which is one of the most important labor-saving triumphs of the age-the absolute financial value of which no man can estimate or compute, and which, of course indi- rectly, must amount to billions of dollars, for that which makes the product of the mills less costly to the manu- facturers makes that product cheaper to consumers.
Does not the inventor deserve to feel a solid sort of satisfaction when he wends his way home at nightfall and reflects that with the 17,000 horse power given through his turbine wheels (about nine-tenths of the whole) in the " Paper City," so much of a load is lifted from the shoulders of labor, and he has insomuch helped to make the burden of the world lighter?
He has been esteemed a great benefactor of his race who could make two blades of grass grow where one grew before, and why should not the same hold true of him who makes easier the productions of the mechanical world? Certainly, were Murray's New Zealander to view the ruins of Holyoke, one thousand years hence, he could not fail to see a useful lesson if the dismantled turbine triumph of the nineteenth century civilization turned up; and the spirit of the inventor -if it were then allowed to hover near- might well exclaim, with proud Æneas of Troy, "All of which I saw, and a great part of which I was."
146
PICTURESQUE HAMPDEN.
FENTON & DUNN, CARRIAGE MANUFACTURERS.
Among the carriage makers of New England, one of the youngest, and yet one of the most prosperous and popular is the firm of Fenton & Dunn of Hol- yoke. Established but nineteen years since, they have reached a position in the trade which many older concerns have failed to attain, and this is mainly because of the best workmanship and constant, close, personal attention of both members of the firm to those many details which go to make up the business.
The firm occupies to-day the same lot of land it started upon in 1873, at the corner of Walnut and Hampden streets-only it uses more of it. The one small shop the company used at first is now occupied as a barn, and the premises were enlarged four times to accommodate the constantly increasing business, until in 1888 the plant reached its present dimensions of about 40,000 feet of floor space.
Both Messrs. Fenton and Dunn are practical mechanics, and started at the anvil and forge, making carriage irons. Mr. Fenton came from Maine, of which state he is a native, and where he began an acquaintance with his trade, and coming to Holyoke he met Mr. Dunn (a native of this state), in trade acquaintance and further apprenticeship until the two felt able to "paddle their own canoe,"-something which subsequent events have shown they could do most successfully.
Both gentlemen are now about forty years of age, evidently fairly established in a successful business career, and an adherence to their business practices
A SECTION OF THE BLACKSMITH SHOP.
STABLISHEDIST
MAKERS
CARRIAGE
FENTON' DUNN
DEPOSITORY
OFFICE
FACTORIES OF FENTON & DUNN, CORNER HAMPDEN AND WALNUT STREETS, HOLYOKE.
A SECTION OF THE WOOD. WORKING DEPARTMENT.
and customs in the past would seem to be all that is needed to insure the crowning triumphs of a diligent business life. We speak advisedly when we say that this com- pany make only the finest of work -their reputation all through the line of their patronage bears out this statement. All parts of their carriages and wagons are put together to stay; the irons are wrought with care and the wood is the most select; choice and toughest of stock, so that when one hears of any part of Fenton & Dunn's carriages breaking or wearing out, he may be pretty sure it is not the fault of the stock, and that no other carriage maker's work could have stood the same amount of strain any better. This company never sold any carriages not made by themselves, and customers, therefore have their carriages practically built to order. The works are running full at all seasons of the year-something which cannot be said of carriage makers' shops generally. They average an employment of one hundred men and these workmen are the best mechanics of their class in New England.
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